Features – Overview of Sources of Canadian Law on the Web

Louise Tsang is Reference Librarian at York University Law Library, Toronto, Ontario. She created and maintains the Law Library Web site. She also contributes contents to the Women’s Human Rights Resources Web site at Bora Laskin Law Library at University of Toronto. In addition to regular reference work, Louise also gives legal research instruction classes to undergraduate Law & Society students and law students. She also contributes regularly to the “Canadian Law Libraries” and the “TALL (Toronto Association of Law Libraries) Newsletter.”

Canadian governments, legislatures, courts and legal research centres have made many important sources of Canadian law accessible on the Web. Many initiatives began in 1996. Much pre-1996 information is not available on the Web even though some organizations decided to upload materials retrospectively. Although more and more legal resources are available on the Web, comprehensive legal research cannot be done solely on the Web yet. We still rely strongly on our print resources, online databases and CD-ROMs. For researchers who do not have ready access to Canadian legal materials, the Web is an important starting point. This article attempts to list and annotate the major sources of Canadian Law on the Web, including statutes, regulations, other legislative materials, case law, and government documents. Most of the Web sites listed here are free of charge. A note will be added if it is a subscription based Web site.

For the benefits of readers who are unfamiliar with the Canadian legal system, I have added brief notes to explain the legal system when necessary. To have a fuller understanding of the legal system of Canada, please consult Gerald L. Gall’s The Canadian Legal System 5th ed. Scarborough, Thomson Canada Limited, 1995. ISBN 0-459-55376-3 (bound). ISBN 0-459-55398-4 (pbk.) Justice Canada also provides a general overview of the Canadian Justice System on its Web site.

The legal system of Canada and all its provinces and territories, with the exception of Quebec, is a common law system, having been strongly influenced in its development by the British common law system. Quebec’s regime is a hybrid of the civil law and common law systems. The Federal Government and a few of the provinces are officially bilingual (English and French) and many Federal documents and documents of bilingual provinces are available in both official languages.

There are 14 sovereign legislative bodies in Canada: the Parliament of Canada, and the legislatures of 10 provinces and 3 territories. Statutes enacted by these legislative bodies are primary legislation. Regulations are made under a statute or an act by the government department or ministry administering that act. Consolidations of Federal and provincial legislation are prepared every 15 and 10 years respectively. To obtain the as-in-force version of a statute/act or a regulation, a researcher has to consolidate all the amendments (found in gazettes) since the last consolidation. Official or commercial consolidations of statutes and regulations are widely available in print or online. They are prepared for the convenience of research. For the purpose of applying and interpreting the law, users are warned to use the official statutes and gazettes.

Department of Justice periodically (approximately 4 times a year) update the statutes. Regulations are also updated quarterly and available on the site. Statutes and regulations are available in complete document for download or searchable Folio Infobase formats, in both English and French. It does not, however, include the Income Tax Act.

This consolidation contains the text of the Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act, 1867, Stats U.K. 30 & 31 Victoria, c. 3), together with amendments made to it since its enactment, and the text of the Constitution Act, 1982 (Stats U.K. 1982, c. 11, Sch. B), as amended since its enactment. The Constitution Act, 1982 contains the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and other new provisions, including the procedure for amending the Constitution of Canada. Also in French.

A bill is passed into law through a legislative process that includes first reading, second reading, committee stage and third reading in both the House of Commons and the Senate. You can find Government Bills and Other Bills (from the current session of the Parliament), full-text and status information, on this site. Also available are the Chamber business and Committee business of both the House of Commons and the Senate. It has debates, Government bills and progress of legislation information for the past two sessions in the archives. Information is available in both English and French.

The Canada Gazette is the official news bulletin of the Government of Canada. The Web site provides the unofficial electronic version of Part I (Jan. 1998, vol. 132, no.1-), Part II (Jan. 1998, vol. 132, no.1-) and Part III (May 1998, vol.21, no.1-) in pdf format. Part I contains all formal public notices, official appointments, miscellaneous notices and proposed regulations from the government and private sectors that are required to be published by a federal statute or a regulation. Part II contains regulations as defined in the Statutory Instruments Act, and certain other classes of statutory instruments. Part III is published as soon as is reasonably practicable after Royal Assent, it contains the most recent Public Acts of Parliament and their enactment proclamation. French version is available at http://canada.gc.ca/gazette/gazette_f.html

The New Brunswick government updates the acts and regulations twice a year. It is consolidated to September 1999. Both statutes and regulations are available in html format, in both English and French.

The public law (matters such as criminal, constitutional and administrative law) in Quebec is based on a Common law system like the rest of Canada. Statutes and regulations are in French only. Statutes regulations are available in HTML and downloadable RTF format. They can be accessed by subjects or can be searched by keywords.

The second major source of law in Canada is the decisions of courts. The courts are bound to follow precedents in accordance with the doctrine of stare decisis. Courts across the country are slowly putting up their decisions on the Web for easier access. For an overview of Canada’s Court System, check the web-based guide on the Justice Canada Web site.

The Supreme Court of Canada is Canada’s highest court. It is the final general court of appeal, the last judicial resort for all litigants, whether individuals or governments. Its jurisdiction embraces both the civil law of the province of Quebec and the common law of the other provinces and territories.

The Web site is in both English and French. It provides general information about the Supreme Court and a link to the judgments at http://www.droit.umontreal.ca/doc/csc-scc/en/index.html (a joint project between the Supreme Court of Canada and the LexUM team of the Centre de Recherche en Droit Public at University of Montreal.) The collection on this LexUM site currently goes back to 1989. It also includes recent not-yet-published judgments, and Supreme Court weekly bulletin going back to 1994. The LexUM site is searchable.

This Web site will enable users to access all insurance jurisprudence in the past 50 years, i.e. CUBs (Canadian Umpire Benefits), Federal Court decisions and Supreme Court decisions as well as a growing number of related Provincial Court and Human Rights Tribunal decisions. It is in both English and French.

It has general information on the Court of Appeal, Court of Queen’s Bench and Provincial Court. It also includes a searchable database which incorporates judgments of the Court of Appeal and Provincial court of Alberta from January 1, 1998 onwards. Decisions are also organized by court and by month.

The Judgment Database includes judgments from both the B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal since 1996 (including recent not-yet-published judgments). Other information on the Web site includes general information, notices and practice directions, annual reports of the courts.

“Decisions, and the reasons for those decisions, following a hearing by a panel of Commission members or by a court are usually rendered orally. Sometimes written reasons for the decision may also be provided. Written reasons for decisions since January 1, 1997 are posted here.”

Many Federal and Provincial Government departments have their own Web sites with links to information they publish. These Web sites are good source of government policies, news releases and annual reports. Provincial Government Web sites offer general information about their provinces including tourist and business information. Depending on the issues you are researching on, you will visit different government departments.

In both English and French. The site offers a series of link to branches of the Government of Canada and the information they publish, as well as information on Canada’s people, history and geography. The site is searchable.

It is in both English and French. It gives general information about Justice Canada, Programs and Services offered by the Department (a good place to start researching topics that fall under Federal Jurisdiction), and a guide to the Canadian Justice System.

It is in both English and French. The Law Commission of Canada is an independent law reform agency responsible to the Parliament of Canada. Its mission is to engage Canadians in the renewal of the law to ensure that it is relevant, responsive, effective, equally accessible to all, and just. The site includes information about current projects of the Law Commission.

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